2 Answers
2

The dnsmasq startup script is /etc/init.d/dnsmasq. It's called by symlinks from the /etc/rcX.d/ directories, for example: /etc/rc2.d/S15dnsmasq

If you don't want it to start, you can remove the package with sudo apt-get remove dnsmasq. Or you can leave it installed and just remove all symlinks from the /etc/rcX.d/ directories with the command: update-rc.d -f dnsmasq remove.

You can also edit /etc/default/dnsmasq and change "ENABLED=1" to "ENABLED=0" which will also tell it not to run in daemon mode.

Lastly, you can disable just the DHCP function by editing /etc/dnsmasq.conf and adding lines for your interfaces that you don't want DHCP on by adding, for example: "no-dhcp-interface=eth0". You might do this if you still wanted to use the DNS functionality.

Note: sometimes dnsmasq is installed as dnsmasq-base instead of dnsmasq in order to work with other packages such as NetworkManager (when sharing an internet connection) or Libvirt (for giving addresses to virtual machines).